Two governors also said the time for negotiations was over. Speaking of State of the Union, Michigan Democrat Gretchen Whitmer said she had long supported stimulus checks worth $ 2,000, but it was too late to make such requests.
“Sign the bill, do it, and if the president wants to push for more, let’s do that too,” said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican who also appeared on the show.
Another Washington governor, Jay Inslee, said Mr. Trump “has decided to take the entire aid package hostage”. Mr Inslee, a Democrat, announced Sunday that the state would allocate $ 54 million to nearly 100,000 people who are said to be losing unemployment benefits.
Despite harsh criticism of Mr Trump, two progressive elected officials joined the president’s call for greater direct payments. In State of the Union, New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman claimed that after his defeat in November, the president “is taking an attitude to make himself and bring himself back as a hero of the American people”. But like Mr. Trump he said, Americans needed more relief.
“It has to be at least $ 2,000, so he has to speak to his Republican friends and say, ‘Give the people the money,” said Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri, who also called the $ 600 figure “a slap in the face “denoted people who suffer.”
Democrats, who have long been campaigning to increase financial relief spread across the country, plan to hold a vote Monday to approve a standalone bill that will increase payments to $ 2,000. It’s unclear whether this legislation will stand a chance in the Senate, where Republicans have long been opposed to spending more than $ 1 trillion on pandemic aid.
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Patrick J. Toomey said he would oppose such a move and urged the president to sign the bill, adding that “time is running out”.
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